Dominican baseball player of the week: Wilin Rosario

Rockies rookie and Dominican baseball player Wilin Rosario is the latest winner of the Dominican Player of the Week here on the Dominican Baseball Guy blog. I dare you to write a sentence that has more derivations of 'Dominican baseball' than that last one.

The Dominican Rosario has a slew of minor league awards, but this appears to be his biggest award while playing in the big leagues. He was a Futures Game selection twice, a post-season and mid-season all-star in the AA Texas League, and won a few other minor league awards. The Dominican Baseball Guy got a chance to see Wilin Rosario play while he was in the Texas League.

He was considered a top-100 prospect at the start of the 2011 season. After six years in the minors, he made the jump from AA to the majors at the end of last year, and has never looked back. He has been an every day player for the Rockies this year, and has home runs and a .274 average, while playing the most important position on the field, catcher.

Last week, he hit a ridiculous .448, with 13 hits, 2 home runs, and 5 RBI. He should be the starting catcher for the Rockies for many years to come.

Dominican baseball player Wilin Rosario is from Bonao, Dominican Republic.

Dominican baseball player Wilin Rosario playing catcher at the Texas League All-Star game,
I promise he is there, photo by monstersweare on Flickr

Corpus Christi Hooks game photos and Dominican baseball players

The Dominican Baseball Guy got the fist chance of the year to catch his hometown Corpus Christi Hooks in action.  Whataburger field in Corpus Christi is one of the best settings in minor league baseball.  This year, the Hooks feature Jimmy Paredes, one of the top prospects in minor league baseball.  They got him in the trade for Berkman to the Yankees last season, and re-signed him this off-season.

Paredes was the only Dominican baseball player on the Hooks to see action in this game.  He went 1-4 and made a few good plays at second base.  The Dominican Baseball Guy got a few good pics of him in action (#24 below).  Paredes is from Haina, Republica Dominicana.

The Hooks took on the Tulsa Drillers.  The Drillers had two peloteros Dominicanos play in the game.  Hector Gomez (San Pedro de Macoris, Republica Dominicana) went 2-6 and scored 2 runs.  Wilin Rosario (Bonao, Republica Dominicana) was 2-5 while playing catcher.

The Drillers won the game 9-6, and there was some good action with the Drillers putting up five runs in the seventh inning.  Since it was Friday, the Hooks had post game fireworks, and a free concert on the outfield starring...wait for it...Neal McCoy.  Yea, he is a country singer whose last hit was in the 90's the Dominican Baseball Guy thinks.

Here are the photos of the Corpus Christi Hooks v. Tulsa Drillers:

Baseball America top 100 prospects features 11 Dominicans

Baseball America is one of the most well respected sites in the evaluation of minor and major league talent.  Their prospect lists are generally well respected among industry insiders.  They recently came out with their preseason top 100 prospect list, a list featuring the top 100 players with the most upside that are still eligible as Major League Baseball rookies.  

The list features some well known minor leaguers like Bryce Harper (no. 1), Domonic Brown (no.4), and Aroldis Chapman (no. 7).  There are 11 Dominicans on the list and here are the Dominican players that were ranked:

Michael Pineda, Yaguate, DR: #16 prospect, RHP Mariners
Gary Sanchez, hometown unknown: #30 C Yankees
Jenrry Mejia, Tabara Arrisba: #44 P Mets
Wilin Rosario, Bonao: #49 C Rockies
Jean Segura, San Juan: #57 2B Angels
Simon Castro, San Jose de los Llanos: #58 RHP Padres
Miguel Sano, San Pedro de Macoris: #60 SS Twins
Cesar Puello, La Romana: #77 RF Mets
Rubby de la Rosa, Santo Domingo: #90 P Dodgers
Arodys Vizcaino, Yaguate: #93 RHP Braves
Jonathan Villar, La Vega: #94 SS Astros

The Dominican players represent 11% of the top 100 prospects in minor league ball.  This number is on par with the number of Dominicans in the big leagues, as 10% of the opening day rosters last season were composed of Dominican players (according to mlb.com).

Miguel Sano is probably the most well known of these Dominican prospects as he signed with the Twins in 2009 to a deal that featured a $3.1 million signing bonus, which is the second largest bonus ever paid to a Latin free agent (see list of largest Latin American signing bonuses by Patrick Clark).  Sano and his road to signing with the Twins is featured in the yet to be released documentary, Pelotero: a Dominican Baseball Story.  See a preview of the movie here.

All the other Dominican prospects are surely known by the fans of their big league clubs.  Michael Pineda and Gary Sanchez have both been hyped a lot.  The Dominican Baseball Guy will be following all these prospects and their road to the big leagues this season and beyond.